The pandemic has forced companies to reorganize, massively adopting teleworking. Today, face-to-face is possible, since the risks associated with COVID-19 have been reduced. But some organizations have chosen to keep teleworking for employees who want it or to adopt a hybrid model mixing teleworking and face-to-face work.
Being able to work from home (or from another country) is often associated with a better quality of life. However, new research published by Gitlab and Qatalog (via Inc) suggests that even when working remotely, bad open office habits die hard.
An hour a day
According to this report, which promotes asynchronous work, a mode of operation that allows maximum flexibility to employees, despite the chance we had to break with rigid work schedules, we are “Still stuck in old habits of presenteeism, and technology is making it worse. »
In this study, 2,000 knowledge workers (“an employee whose job is to develop and use knowledge in the back office rather than to produce goods or services”according to Wikipedia) were interviewed in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The survey shows that workers spend 67 minutes more every day just to show co-workers and managers that they’re still online and still working. This equates to 5.5 hours per week.
Additionally, 57% of respondents said they feel pressured to show they are online at certain times of the day.
“The average knowledge worker now receives notifications from six apps, and 73% of workers respond to these notifications outside of work hours, making it difficult to log out”can also be read in the presentation of this study.
Yet 81% of respondents would believe they would be more productive if they had more flexible hours. On the other hand, 43% of respondents would agree to be paid less in exchange for this flexibility.
The GitLab company in favor of telework and asynchronous mode of operation
The solution proposed by the study is asynchronous work (to simplify, everyone does not work at the same time), of which the company Gitlab is a pioneer. Competitor of GitHub, this company is thoroughly on telework as well as on the asynchronous method.
Here’s how it’s described on the GitLab website: “In an asynchronous enterprise, team members have the power to move projects forward on a schedule that works for them. At GitLab, we measure results, not hours. This means people are free to get results when it suits them best. If someone travels to a new time zone every month or chooses to spend a nice afternoon with family, that’s their prerogative. »
And the company ensures that this allows for employee loyalty, a high retention rate, as well as the expected quality of work.
Otherwise, the GitLab and Qatalog study also points to the fact that existing tools are not always optimized for this type of work.
“To solve these problems, existing technologies and new market entrants need to be more user-aware and completely redesigned for the new way of working, rather than supporting old habits in new environments”can we read in it.
